On
March 1, 1945 commandant Joseph
Kramer addressed the following letter,
to the Head of Department D in S.S.
Administration Department, S.S.
Gruppenführer Glücks,
Oranienburg. It is reproduced from the
book The Belsen Trial.

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Bergen-Belsen, March 1,
1945

Gruppenführer,

IT has been my intention for a long
time past to seek an interview with you in
order to describe the present conditions
here. As service conditions make this
impossible I sho uld like to submit a
written report on the impossible state of
affairs and ask for your support.

You informed me by telegram of February
23, 1945, that I was to receive 2,500
female detainees as a first consignment
from Ravensbrück. I have assured
accommodation for this number. The
reception of further consignments is
impossible, not only from the point of
view of accommodation due to lack of
space, but particularly on account of the
feeding question. When S.S.
Stabsarztführer Lolling
inspected the camp at the end of January
it was decided that an occupation of the
camp by over 35,000 detainees must be
considered too great. In the meantime this
number has been exceeded by 7,000 and a
further 6,200 are at this time on their
way. The consequence of this is that all
barracks are overcrowded by at least 30
per cent. The detainees cannot lie down to
sleep, but must sleep in a sitting
position on the floor. Three-tier beds or
bunks have been repeatedly allotted to the
camp in recent time by Amt. B. III, but
always from areas with which there is no
transport connection. If I had sufficient
sleeping accommodation at my disposal,
then the accommodation of the detainees
who have already arrived and of those
still to come would appear more possible.
In addition to this question a spotted
fever and typhus epidemic has now begun,
which increases in extent every day. The
daily mortality rate, which was still in
the region of 60-70 at the beginning of
February, has in the meantime attained a
daily average of 250-300 and will still
further increase in view of the conditions
which at present prevail.

Supply.
When I took over the camp, winter
supplies for 1,500 internees had been
indented for; some had been received, but
the greater part had not been delivered.
This failure was due not only to
difficulties of transport but also to the
fact that practically nothing is available
in this area and all must be brought from
outside the area. The supplies which were
available here were calculated to last
till February 20; by the greatest economy
it has been possible to have still, at the
present time, potato supplies for eight
days and turnips for six days. Fresh
negotiations with the representative of
the local peasants' combine with regard to
further supplies have been started. The
same situation prevails with regard to the
supply of bread - apart from the supply by
Training Area Bergen we received daily one
load from a bread factory in Hanover. For
the last four days there has been no
delivery from Hanover owing to interrupted
communications, and I shall be compelled,
if this state of affairs prevails till the
end of the week, to fetch bread also by
means of lorry from Hanover. The lorries
allotted to the local unit are in no way
adequate for this work and I am compelled
to ask for at least three to four lorries
and five to six trailers. When I once have
here a means of towing then I can send out
the trailers into the surrounding area. If
the negotiations with the representatives
of the local peasants' combine on the
subject of supply of potatoes are
successful, then I have to allow for
fetching these also by lorry. The supply
question must, without fail, be cleared up
in the next few days. I ask you,
Gruppenführer, for an allocation of
transport. The collection of food will be
dealt with from here. Further, I need
badly an additional supply of boilers. All
boilers belonging to the camp are in use
day and night. We shall be in great
difficulties if one of these boilers
fails. There is a field kitchen here with
30 boilers of 300 litres capacity which
were placed at the disposal of the S.S. by
the D.A.F. To our request of December 29,
1944, that we should make temporary use of
these boilers, we received a written reply
on January 3, 1945, that their use cannot
be sanctioned. S.S. Sturmführer
Burger noted this when he paid a visit
here. I do not know what decision was
arrived at as a result of any discussions.
Possibly under the changed conditions it
is possible to gain the use of these
boilers. I urgently need here a further 20
boilers in order to be able to provide for
a possible deficit.

State of Health. The incidence
of disease is very high here in proportion
to the number of detainees. When you
interviewed me on December 1, 1944, at
Oranienburg, you told me that
Bergen-Belsen was to serve as a sick camp
for all concentration camps in North
Germany. The number of sick has greatly
increased, particularly on account of the
transports of detainees, which have
arrived from the East in recent times -
these transports have sometimes spent
eight to fourteen days in open trucks. An
improvement in their condition, and
particularly a return of these detainees
to work, is under present conditions quite
out of the question. The sick here
gradually pine away till they die of
weakness of the heart and general
debility. As already stated, the average
daily mortality is between 250 and 300.
One can best gain an idea of the
conditions of incoming transports when I
state that on one occasion, out of a
transport of 1900 detainees over 500
arrived dead. The fight against spotted
fever is made extremely difficult by the
lack of means of disinfection. Due to
constant use the hot-air delousing machine
is now in bad working order and sometimes
fails for several days. At the time of his
visit S. S. Stabsarztführer Lolling
promised me a "short-wave delousing
machine." To use this I need a more
powerful transformer, which, according to
information received from Bauinspektion
Nord, Wismaerstrasse, Berlin, is awaiting
collection. Although I require the
apparatus so urgently, it is impossible at
the present time to send transport to
Berlin to collect it. The same situation
prevails with the parts for the new
crematorium and for roofing material and
cement. In my opinion it should be
possible for the Building Department to
load all these urgently required items, if
not in a lorry at any rate in a truck, to
dispatch them to this place with a
transport of detainees from Sachsenhausen
or Ravensbrück. So far as the
Building Department is concerned, the
matter is finished when they have stated
that the items can be fetched from this or
that place. The Departments probably
believe that transport is available here
in great excess and only waiting for
employment. A further item which concerns
the Building Department is the sewage
installation. It was decided in 1943 that
the existing machinery was too small for
the number of detainees. In the period
since 1943 several investigations and
plans were made, but nothing at all done.
Now owing to this deliberation a
catastrophe is taking place for which no
one wishes to assume responsibility. It
may be possible to initiate measures from
your end so that the matter is put in
hand.

Gruppenführer, I can assure you
that from this end everything will be done
to overcome the present crisis. With this
letter I merely wanted to point out to you
the difficulties which exist here. For my
part it is a matter of course that these
difficulties must be overcome. I am now
asking you for your assistance as far as
it lies in your power. In addition to the
above-mentioned points I need here, before
everything, accommodation facilities,
beds, blankets, eating utensils - all for
about 20,000 internees.

On the question of putting the
internees to work, I have contacted the
employment authorities. There is a chance
of being able to make use, in the near
future, of woman labour. There is no
availability here of making use of male
labour. In addition to the concentration
camp prisoners there are here still about
7,500 internees ("Exchange Jews"). S.S.
Hauptsturmführer Moes from
RHSA IV A 4b was here last week and
informed me that these Jews would be
removed in the near future. It would be
much appreciated if this could be done as
soon as possible, for in this way
accommodation could then be found for at
least 10,000 concentration camp prisoners.
Because of the spotted fever danger S.S.
Hauptsturmführer Moes is not willing
to take these Jews away at the present
time. These Jews are to go partly to
Theresienstadt and partly to a new camp in
Württemberg. The removal of these
internees is particularly urgent for the
reason that several concentration camp
Jews have discovered among the camp
internees their nearest relations - some
their parents, some their brothers and
sisters. Also for purely political reasons
- I mention in this connection the high
death figure in this camp at present - it
is essential that these Jews disappear
from here as soon as possible.

With that I wish to close my present
report. In this connection,
Gruppenführer, I want to assure you
once again that on my part everything will
definitely be done to bridge over this
difficult situation. I know that you have
even greater difficulties to overcome and
appreciate that you must send to this camp
all internees discharged from that area;
on the other hand, I implore your help in
overcoming this situation.